Commuters jostle each other on a long queue at the MRT North EDSA in Quezon City.
EDWIN BACASMAS/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Ticket vending machines (TVMs) at all railway transit systems in Metro Manila are now accepting newly-designed coins circulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced聽on Tuesday聽that newly-designed P1, P5 and P10 coins can now be used to purchase tickets at TVMs at the Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2, as well as at the Metro Rail Transit Line 3.
鈥淎F Payments, Inc. (AFPI), the company that introduced and manages the self-service聽TVMs, started the recalibration process as early as January this year,鈥� the DOTr said in a statement.
鈥淭he entire聽process, which took three months, included the delivery of new coins to聽Manchester, United Kingdom for firmware development. This was subsequently聽followed by a series of software testing,鈥� it said.
The AFPI, in a statement in January, announced that TVMs would start accepting the new coins in March. The DOTr, however, said the recalibration of TVMs was only completed on April 16,聽Monday.
READ: LRT, MRT ticket vendo machines soon to accept new coins
The BSP had started circulating the newly-designed coins late聽2017. /je